Background-Identification of patients at risk for primary and secondary manifestations of atherosclerotic disease progression is based mainly on established risk factors. The atherosclerotic plaque composition is thought to be an important determinant of acute cardiovascular events, but no prospective studies have been performed. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether atherosclerotic plaque composition is associated with the occurrence of future vascular events. Methods and Results-Atherosclerotic carotid lesions were collected from patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy and were subjected to histological examination. Patients underwent clinical follow-up yearly, up to 3 years after carotid endarterectomy. The primary outcome was defined as the composite of a vascular event (vascular death, nonfatal stroke, nonfatal myocardial infarction) and vascular intervention. The cumulative event rate at 1-, 2-, and 3-year follow-up was expressed by Kaplan-Meier estimates, and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed to assess the independence of histological characteristics from general cardiovascular risk factors.

This study indicates that the initial colonization of peri-implant pockets with bacteria associated with periodontitis occurs within 2 weeks.

The results of this study demonstrated the potential of a new CHX 0.12% + CPC 0.05% non-alcoholic formulation as an effective anti-plaque and anti-inflammatory agent with reduced unpleasant subjective side-effects.

BACKGROUND Calcium hydroxylapatite (CaHA) is approved to correct moderate-to-severe wrinkles and folds and soft-tissue volume loss in the face and hands. More recently, subdermal injection using diluted CaHA has been used to improve skin laxity. OBJECTIVE To review evidence for the safe and effective use of diluted CaHA in the face and body and provide best practice recommendations. METHODS A global panel of expert aesthetic physicians convened to develop consensus-based guidelines for treating laxity and superficial wrinkles using diluted (ratio of 1:1) and hyperdiluted (≥1:2) CaHA. RESULTS Diluted and hyperdiluted CaHA stimulates targeted neocollagenesis in the injection area to improve laxity and skin quality in the mid- and lower face, neck, décolletage, upper arms, abdomen, upper legs, and buttocks. Treatment can be used as an adjunct to volume augmentation or combined with additional modalities for optimal results. Adverse events are related to the injection and include bruising, swelling, mild pain, and induration. In thinner and darker skin, too-superficial injections of less diluted CaHA can lead to more adverse events. CONCLUSION This report provides preliminary guidelines for the novel off-label use of CaHA for biostimulation in the face and body. Further trials will provide additional clarity regarding treatment paradigms for optimal outcomes.

The results of this study demonstrate that morning halitosis can be successfully reduced via daily use of mouthrinses. CHX-Alc and CHX-CPC-Zn mouthrinses result in a significant reduction of the microbial load of tongue and saliva.

Objective-Rupture of unstable atherosclerotic plaques is the pathological substrate for acute ischemic events. Underlying cellular and molecular characteristics of plaque rupture have been studied extensively. However, the natural course of symptomatic plaque remodeling after ischemic events is relatively unexplored. Methods and Results-Atherosclerotic carotid plaques were obtained from 804 symptomatic (strokeϭ204 and TIAϭ426) and asymptomatic (nϭ174) patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. See accompanying article on page 3but it has been suggested that progression of atherosclerosis is a summation of sequential repetitive events resulting in plaque stabilization and plaque destabilization. Most research on plaque progression has been focused on the cellular and molecular structure of the plaque that may precede local rupture. 2,4 -6 The alterations in plaque phenotype after a clinical event are relatively unexplored. To identify the natural history of plaque remodeling after a thrombotic event, we examined the structure of carotid endarterectomy specimen at histological and protein level in relation to the time elapsed between the most recent cerebrovascular event and surgery. For this purpose we used plaque samples and medical data from the multi center study "Athero-Express," including symptomatic and asymptomatic patients who had undergone carotid endarterectomy. Besides histological characteristics we assessed mediators that have been associated with the unstable plaque like cytokines, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) and an apoptosis marker in 804 protein samples. [7][8][9][10] The search for therapeutic options to prevent plaque destabilization is hampered by the lack of surrogate markers of disease progression. Therapeutic and diagnostic molecular targets often require validation of expression levels in human atherosclerotic plaques. In this study we assessed to what extent the outcome of validation studies may be influenced by the time that elapsed between the clinical event and the dissection of the atherosclerotic plaque. We report that after stroke, plaques remodel into a noninflammatory stable phenotype. The outcome of this study supports the concept that plaque stabilization and destabilization are sequential events in the progression of atherosclerotic disease.

In order to measure active drag during front crawl swimming a system has been designed, built and tested. A tube (23 m long) with grips is fixed under the water surface and the swimmer crawls on this. At one end of the tube, a force transducer is attached to the wall of the swimming pool. It measures the momentary effective propulsive forces of the hands. During the measurements the subjects' legs are fixed together and supported by a buoy. After filtering and digitizing the electrical force signal, the mean propulsive force over one lane at constant speeds (ranging from about 1 to 2 m s-1) was calculated. The regression equation of the force on the speed turned out to be almost quadratic. At a mean speed of 1.55 m s-1 the mean force was 66.3 N. The accuracy of this force measured on one subject at different days was 4.1 N. The observed force, which is equal to the mean drag force, fits remarkably well with passive drag force values as well as with values calculated for propulsive forces during actual swimming reported in the literature. The use of the system does not interfere to any large extent with normal front crawl swimming; this conclusion is based on results of observations of film by skilled swim coaches. It was concluded that the system provides a good method of studying active drag and its relation to anthropometric variables and swimming technique.

Objective-Atherosclerotic plaque rupture can lead to severe complications such as myocardial infarction and stroke.Myeloid related protein (Mrp)-14, Mrp-8, and Mrp-8/14 complex are inflammatory markers associated with myocardial infarction. It is, however, unknown whether Mrps are associated with a rupture-prone plaque phenotype. In this study, we determined the association between Mrp-14, -8, -8/14 plaque levels and plaque characteristics. Methods and Results-In 186 human carotid plaques, levels of Mrp-14, -8, and -8/14 were quantified using ELISA. High levels of Mrp-14 were found in lesions with a large lipid core, high macrophage staining, and low smooth muscle cell and collagen amount. Plaques with high levels of Mrp-14 contained high interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-8, MMP-9, and low MMP-2 concentrations. Mrp-8 and Mrp-8/14 showed a similar trend. Within plaques, a subset of nonfoam macrophages expressed Mrp-8 and Mrp-14 and the percentage of Mrp-positive macrophages was higher in rupture-prone lesions compared to stable ones. In vitro, this subset of macrophages does not acquire a foamy phenotype when fed oxLDL. Conclusion-Mrp-14 is strongly associated with the histopathologic features and the inflammatory status of rupture-prone atherosclerotic lesions, identifying Mrp-14 as a local marker for these plaques.